And The Update Is...Heartbreak In The Writing Community, Chart Toppers & Goats

(upbeat music) Welcome to And The Update is I Am Your Host, Ross Golan, and this is the music industry news for the week of June 18th, 2026. We have had a really brutal last few weeks in the songwriting community. First, we lost Telet Riley, which we haven't discussed on this before, but he was killed in London a few weeks ago. He was stabbed and they still haven't found the people responsible for the crime. Telet has written songs for Dua, along with a bunch of people, but is a big part of the community worked with a lot of our former guests. And he included wonderful, very funny, very cool, smart man, a terrible story. And of course, we all know about the Oliver Tree situation in Brazil where he was in a helicopter crash and passed away. He was not only a great artist, but also a great songwriter in the community. And just earlier today, Tate Keith was found dead in his home in Tennessee. Tate is also part of the Warner Chapel family. We have the same publisher, a big part of the songwriting community, wrote sicko mode, big producer, just a terrible few weeks. And there's a lot of stuff going on in the music industry. And none of it really matters if things like that happen. Who cares about who buys what catalog? When these things occur to our community, it's a tight-knit group. So our love goes out to all of the songwriters and artists and especially the families that were connected to these three gentlemen. So that is the somber news this week. That's just a tough week in the songwriting community. But onto some other news and some things to celebrate for songwriters. The Grammy Awards added five new categories and updates to award rules. The biggest one being that songwriters will now be recognized on winning albums with statuettes and achievement certificates on par with engineers and producers. So that's cool. We are now all equals. It took about 70 years, but we're there. Congratulations to all of the members in these songwriters and composers, Wayne and to my co-chair, Evan Bogart, for his tireless efforts to support the songwriting community. Also, there will be a best Asian pop music performance, which is the first real push into celebrating Asian music. As we all know, that is a massive part of the songwriting community. The No Fakes Act passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee. That proposed bill would give artist stronger protections against unauthorized AI generated use of their voices and likeness. This is big news. It will be bigger when it actually passes the Senate. Bad Bunny reached a billion dollars in touring revenue. That is the first Latin artist in history to do that. Bose, the speaker company launched a record label. So that's an interesting move as we all listen to our Bose headsets on airplanes. Well, you know, maybe our parents do, but you get the point. These are launches in AI Music Detector for Streaming Playlist. We are continuing to see the demise of Slop in, yes, a lot of people are using it and are trying to upload stuff, but nobody wants to hear your Slop. Boy, George launches artists included to help legacy artist rerecord hits. This is interesting. You will see this be a positive use of AI technology to help create new masters for classic recordings that they would own. Curious to see how major labels protect their ownership of their masters and what they will do to prevent artists from doing this. They probably don't have rights to do that, but we will see how they respond. Ariana Grande launched brighter days ahead foundation to fund organizations focused on LGBTQ+ rights, mental health, reproductive justice, and emergency support if you know her and her family. Well, that makes sense. Shaka Khan signs a catalog deal with harbor view equity partners that is a massive catalog and more so because of her influence and her importance. In signings, Robbie Williams signed with new management. Maybe that means people in the United States will learn who he is. Dylan Francis moved over to Moe as Shaleezy Group. If you don't know who Moe is, he is one of the best managers in the EDM space. The Linda Linda signed two Warner records and reprise records. They have been on their slow climb to start them. Watch out for them as well. Russ signs on for new management. Yeah, that's cool because he's one of our guests and he is a legend. BB Rex also, one of our former guests, has had an incredible indie run in the last month. Congratulations to her. She signed to CAA for touring. So, okay, so that is most of the news news. Here's some charts for you. Kind of called it last week, but I knew it. I knew you by Taylor Swift. It's number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Still making the case is she's the goat. Iceman by Drake is number one on Billboard 200 chart for the fourth week in a row. He's making his case for the same goat status. You seem pretty sad for a girl in love by Olivia Rodrigo debut's number one on Spotify's top albums debut global chart. She is making a case that she will someday be a goat. Stupid song by Olivia Rodrigo debut's at number one on Spotify's top debut global chart as well, BTS, of course. Still up there, Ariana, still up there. In the US, it's all the same names. Don't forget about choosing Texas. She won't go away. There you go. That is our news for the week. Our interview with Nessa Barrett earlier this week was a gem. She's a lovely person. And Tuesday we will have another one for you. Again, we are still celebrating our Patreon release. That has been going super well. Stay tuned there because we will be doing our Zoom hang very shortly and we will be announcing that in the next week. So there you go. That's our news. Thank you, Georgia Web Bush always for your notes. You're the best. And we'll talk to you all soon. Bye.